DETROIT -- Every driving instructor reminds students to "watch out for the other guy" to prevent accidents.

Now General Motors has equipped a few Cadillacs with a prototype system that watches out for the other guy's car and can slam on the brakes to prevent a rear-end collision.

The CTS and STS vehicles demonstrated the future of vehicle-to-vehicle electronic technology during the Convergence conference in Detroit in mid-October. The technology is still too new for cost estimates. But it combines many existing systems in vehicles to achieve its aims. GM says it developed the technology.

GM's demonstration underscores the rapid movement toward wireless safety technology, which is also being developed aggressively by other automakers and Tier 1 suppliers. The concept has been around for at least a decade. But the increasing fusion of in-car electronics such as braking, stability control and advanced navigation devices is now allowing practical application of such systems.

Cars talk to cars

Using a combination of global positioning navigation devices, short-distance radio communication and input from existing in-vehicle sensors, the vehicle-to-vehicle -- or V2V -- cars can tell each other where they are and calculate whether danger threatens.

GM drivers demonstrated by positioning a Cadillac at the end of a long straightaway set up in a parking lot. Another car then accelerated toward the rear of the stopped one.

Passengers in the approaching car saw an instrument panel warning appear as the distance to the stopped car shortened. First a green car-shaped emblem was displayed on the in-car screen. Then a yellow, larger version popped up. As the distance closed further, the brake and backup lights of the stopped car began to flash automatically. At the same time, a red warning appeared inside the moving car to signal danger.

At what seemed to be the last moment, automatic braking kicked in and stopped the moving car quickly and safely.

Drivers said the cars communicate over a 5.9-gigahertz bandwidth allocated by Congress in 1999 for vehicle safety systems.

The same V2V system is also used as a blind-spot warning system by the demonstration vehicles.

Donald Grimm, a GM senior electronics researcher, said the system is potentially far less expensive than equipping individual cars with radar sensors dedicated to blind-spot detection. The system, updated 10 times per second and active up to about 500 feet away, can give plenty of warning to prevent a driver from merging into an occupied lane.

Spinoff benefits

Other future spinoffs of such technology could revolutionize driving, said Larry Burns, GM's vice president of r&d and planning. "It's going to reshape the industry," he said during an interview at the demonstration.

If vehicles are able to communicate with one another, many traffic control devices could become a thing of the past. Delays and fuel waste at stoplights could be significantly reduced, and the cost of roadway infrastructure could come down, he said.

A car-connected network of electronic information could give future dialed-in vehicles an automatic advantage. Setting speeds along the road is one possibility. Traffic also could be tailored so that more cars can safely occupy the same stretch of road.

Those advances are far in the future. But Burns said more immediate safety is possible with a surprisingly small number of cars equipped with V2V capability -- 5 to 10 percent, or about 23 million passenger vehicles in the United States.

Not every car in that fleet would need to have an active version of the V2V system, either. But minimal penetration would lead equipped cars to form mini-networks of connected vehicles that, in turn, could regulate the behavior of many other drivers close to them.

General Motors' flagship luxury brand, Cadillac, could come up with a broad new array of products, General Manager Jim Taylor told TheCarConnection.com. The GM design department has developed a number of prototypes, including crossovers, coupes, wagons, and sports cars, said Taylor, quickly cautioning that, "the question is where you get the money" to bring the various products to market. With the exception of a second crossover/SUV, slotted below the current SRX, Taylor explained, "none of them have checks written by the (GM) board yet." There are so many different alternatives, "people agonize over them," trying to put a priority on which products would make the most sense for Cadillac.

Looking out five years, "the most obvious" and necessary addition for Cadillac would be a flagship sedan to go up against the likes of the BMW 7-Series of Mercedes-Benz S-Class, said Taylor. It would not generate high sales numbers, at least not directly, though a well-executed product would "establish the image" that could help sell more affordable Cadillac models, the executive explains. The luxury market is fragmenting, according to industry analysts, something that segment leaders like Mercedes have recognized with the addition of models such as its R-Class sport-tourer, and CLS coupe-like sedan. Cadillac needs to follow that trend, Taylor acknowledged, or it risks "being left behind."

By Paul Lienert, Contributor Email

Date posted: 11-28-2007


Cadillac boss Jim Taylor is getting ready to watch his cars, the Team Cadillac CTS-Vs. We're at Road Atlanta for a round in the SCCA Speed World Challenge GT. As is often the case with the peripatetic Taylor, he's working a mobile phone and — no surprise — chatting animatedly about the V-Series production cars and their impact on the Cadillac brand.

"Cadillac has had an enormous hill to climb in terms of perception," he says. "But the V-Series is doing its job. Our initial focus was on young males. That has mushroomed, mostly by word of mouth. Like this weekend at Road Atlanta — we're building the buzz, one track at a time."

In fact, the buzz already has been mounting about the 2009 Cadillac CTS-V, which breaks cover in January at the Detroit auto show. The '09 V-Series CTS hits the street next fall with a supercharged version of the Corvette's LS3 6.2-liter V8 under the hood. Expect output to top 500 horsepower and torque to climb to nearly 500 pound-feet.

Sounds great, except the Cadillac V-Series concept has been a flop so far.

Credibility, Maybe; Volume, No
The V-Series cars have garnered mixed reviews since Cadillac introduced the original CTS-V in 2004. The V-Series idea began with the Cadillac Northstar LMP racing sports car that went to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2000 - 2002, and then found its expression in the CTS-V that entered the SCCA's Speed GT racing championship in 2004 and then won the championship in 2005-'07. Yet for every person who wanted the V-Series to be a racing car, another suggested that a luxury car in the style of a Mercedes-Benz AMG might be a better answer.

And despite being supported by a lavish advertising and promotion budget, the cars haven't been selling, and Cadillac isn't really sure why. While the division has sold an average 230,000 vehicles a year since 2004, annual sales of the V-Series have dwindled to around 3,000 units, including fewer than 1,000 STS-Vs and fewer than 500 XLR-Vs. In comparison, the pricey BMW M5 alone outsells the entire Cadillac V-Series range.

"To be honest, when you're only selling 3,000 cars a year out of a total volume of 200,000-plus, the actual impact is limited," says Taylor. "But I like to use the camera reference. If you want to buy a good camera, you go ask someone who's really into cameras what they'd recommend.

"Same thing in the car business. You get into this luxury space, and a lot is done by word of mouth. People want a reference point, and the go-to guys are the enthusiasts. They cast a huge shadow on regular customers and influence their purchase decisions."

Outgunning the Competition?
What the enthusiasts have said, in print and cyberspace, is that the V-Series cars generally stack up well against the competition. The CTS-V has outgunned its German rivals, the BMW M3 and the Mercedes-Benz C55 AMG, in terms of engine size, horsepower, torque, acceleration and top speed.

On the downside, Cadillac's hot rod last year carried a suggested retail price of $52,170, well above the M3's $48,900 sticker and nearly as steep as the C55 AMG's $54,450 price tag. What may have given prospective buyers even greater pause might have been the $21,500 premium the CTS-V carried over the base '07 CTS, which listed for $30,670. The '08 STS-V and XLR-V carry similarly stiff price premiums of $24,745 and $19,100 respectively over the standard versions of these cars.

Simply put, Cadillac has demonstrated that it doesn't have the cachet with enthusiasts to pull off that sort of price premium on its high-end models.

Cadillac certainly hasn't achieved the success of BMW, which has had its M Division engineering high-performance parts and vehicles for three decades. The mystique of BMW M is daunting. Jack Pitney, marketing vice president at BMW North America, observes, "Great driving dynamics have always been a cornerstone of BMW. The purest expression of that is our M brand.... It's the epitome of BMW."

But this mystique hasn't stopped General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, a former BMW sales executive, from tossing down the gauntlet. The redesigned '09 Cadillac CTS-V, Lutz proclaims, will not only dust the M3, it will also "put the M5 on the trailer."

What's Next?
We think big questions loom regarding the future of the Cadillac STS-V and XLR-V, although Taylor says that prospective successors for one or both models are "on the radar."

He also suggests the division could expand the V-Series sub-brand to one or more future products that will broaden Cadillac's portfolio after 2010. "A series can't be a series with only one model in it," says Taylor. "So we fully intend to extend the V-Series brand to other models. But they have to be credible and perform like a V, otherwise they won't make the team."

Candidates for the V-Series treatment include an ultra-luxury XLS flagship sedan to square off against the BMW 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class that might be built on the same updated GM Zeta platform as the Pontiac G8. There might also be a rear-drive compact sedan based on the upcoming Alpha platform that would slot below the CTS in the Cadillac lineup.

Meanwhile, Taylor describes the forthcoming 2009 Cadillac CTS V-Series as "a CTS on steroids [with] a power-to-weight ratio that will give it phenomenal performance. We're preparing to raise the bar significantly. It will be much more spectacular — and it should help us build even more credibility."

Taylor also reveals that the 2009 CTS V-Series will offer a choice of six-speed manual and automatic gearboxes — a move that could double CTS-V sales from the meager 2,000-plus V-Series units that Cadillac sold in 2006.

Can This Child Be Saved?
Given the generally positive response from enthusiasts, but only modest success on the retail side, is the V-Series concept still valid for Cadillac?

"Look what's happened to the perception of the brand," observes Jim Hall, vice president of industry analysis for California-based consulting firm AutoPacific, Inc. "Cadillac's consideration among younger buyers is way up from just three years ago. And the median age of buyers continues to come down."

Heritage and brand-building over the long haul are issues, too. It has taken BMW 30 years to establish its M series at the top of the performance heap. Says Hall, "The true payoff for Cadillac won't come quickly. You have to look at the potential return over maybe a decade."

The final frontier for Cadillac may involve better communications with prospective customers.

Says Taylor: "The original mission for the V-Series hasn't really changed. But we realize we're still only reaching a relatively small portion of the general luxury population. So part of our marketing challenge is to let more people know that we have a V-Series. We need to broaden that message beyond the alpha-male gearhead crowd."

General Motors has announced that it has canceled its plans to build a new advanced double overhead-cam V8 for its luxury cars. The cancellation leaves the future of V8-powered Cadillacs — other than the XLR sports car — up in the air.

The planned called for a $300 million investment in GM's Tonawanda, New York engine plant where production of the new V8 engine was slated for 2009. GM Powertrain spokesman Tom Read announced today that the project is dead.

The new engine would have likely replaced the current Northstar V8 used in Cadillac vehicles. The Northstar powerplant will cease production in 2010.

Instead, it is likely that GM will switch to higher-output V6 engines. The new direct-injection V6 used in the Cadillac CTS develops almost as much horsepower as a V8. “We’ve really seen the V6 become the predominant engine in sales on the (2008) STS because it’s so close in power to the V8,” Cadillac spokesman Kevin Smith told Automotive News.

No word on how the cancellation will affect Cadillac's V-series of cars.

It is believed that the recently passed CAFE standards are responsible for the cancellation and that the death of the program could be an indication of things to come throughout the entire auto industry.